Robot 6

Pope to get his own manga

The Dalai Lama has his own bio-manga, so it’s only fair that Pope Benedict XVI should get one too, right? Creator Jonathan Lin has already produced two biblically themed manga, one on St. Paul and one on Judith, and now he is turning his hand to a more contemporary story, that of Pope Benedict XVI, in a manga titled Habemus Papam! (For the uninitiated, the title is the Latin phrase used to announce the election of a new pope.)

One flaw with this plan, of course, is that Benedict has had a rather sedate life compared to the others. Judith saved her people by befriending and then beheading the general of the enemy troops. St. Paul had a blinding vision on the road to Damascus, which could be a real tour de force for a serious manga artist, and he traveled quite a bit, which opens the possibility of some action-packed, if uncanonical, adventures. And the Dalai Lama’s story is filled with battles and betrayal. The pope? Not so much.

This short story captures different moments throughout the Holy Father’s life – specifically as a cardinal working with the late Pope John Paul II, and culminating in the moments leading up to his election as Bishop of Rome. The story also shows how he grows into his role as pope.

So it’s one of those more contemplative manga, then. You can’t argue with the numbers, though: Lin, who has his own publishing company, Manga Hero, plans to print 300,000 copies, which places Habemus Papem! in the same league as Twilight: The Manga, although it sounds like many copies will be distributed for free during World Youth Day in Madrid this coming August.

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Comments

11 Comments

Bill Reed

Marc C

Yes, but will it be a biography or a work of fiction? Will he be shown in a Hitler Youth uniform? Signing documents telling bishops to cover-up child sex abuse? Methinks not–sounds like a great work of fiction.

Cass

Will he be shown in a Hitler Youth uniform? Signing documents telling bishops to cover-up child sex abuse? Methinks not–sounds like a great work of fiction.

How would the work be “fictional” if they omitted those things? Did I miss the part in the description where “Habemus Papum” claims to be a comprehensive tell-all? And you don’t know, maybe they will include the pope’s compulsory membership in Hitler Youth (an organization which was dissolved before he turned 18). Maybe they will include it as a bit of historical background on the Germany of his adolescence, which conscripted 8 million of its teenagers (80%+) into Hitler Youth. All of them, I’m sure, wound up working in concentration camps, gleefully throwing the gas on Jewish mothers and feasting on their first-born children over a helping of sauerkraut.

Look. I get that it’s “cool” and “iconoclastic” (lol) to parrot sensational and outright-fictional tabloid headlines about Christian figures and organizations (but bigoted if they’re about Muslim, Jewish, African-American, gay, etc), but there are these smaller black letters beneath the big black letters in the headlines, where details can be found and it’s harder to mislead. I find that it helps to read them.

bongoes

Marc C

Cass–what no rebuttal to the cover-up of child sex abuse? I have read those little letters in such papers as the New York Times and the Guardian–they even provide documentation of their claims. Shocking to see the now Pope slap the hand of an NBC reporter when questioned about his role in the cover-up. As for the Hitler Youth duck–what would Jesus have done if faced with a similar choice?

For the record: I came to this article thinking Paul Pope doing Manga–almost threw up in my mouth when I saw it was about this criminal head of state.

Sijo

No offense to the current Pope, but I was hoping this would be about John Paul II. It would be more interesting. (And yes, there have been JPII comics, but not a manga that I know of. Could be wrong, tho.)